[Illustration: _The Brush-Everard House is one of some eighty original structures now restored to their colonial appearance in Williamsburg._]
John Brush was the earliest Williamsburg smith whose name is known today. He was primarily a gunsmith and armorer, but may have done blacksmithing too. He bought two lots in the shadow of the Governor's Palace in 1717, and the modest home he built there (later enlarged by Thomas Everard) still stands on Palace Green. So far as surviving records have revealed, he was followed by no more than fourteen individuals over the next three-quarters of a century who worked iron and steel in one or more of the smithy crafts: blacksmith, gunsmith, locksmith, cutler, nailmaker, and farrier.
Only fourteen. Even granting the possibility that some blacksmiths never left their name or mark in a written record, this seems remarkably few for so long a period in one of Virginia's chief towns. The small number can probably be taken as another indication that most of the colony's smiths--like eighty to ninety percent of its population--lived and worked in the country.
Surviving advertisements, invoices, and inventories of Williamsburg blacksmiths suggest that the work they did was of a somewhat different nature from that of the rural smith. The following extracts from account books of James Anderson and Thomas Pate indicate something of the urban variety:
1771 Mr. Henry Morse Dr to James Anderson Jan 22 To Cleaning 3 guns @ 3/ 1 9 0 March 22 To Cleaning 3 Do @ 3/ 0 9 0 August 28 To plating Chair Shafts ? ? 3 To mendg a spring 0 2 6 1772 May 25 To a New tumbler pr lock 0 2 6 June 3 To Mending Bridle Bitt 0 0 7½ 7 To Mending a Chair 0 2 6 July 30 To Altering a spring 0 3 9 To Do 2 bolts 0 1 3 May 18 To feeding 2 horses 20 days @ 4/ 4 0 0 To laing axletree pr Chair 0 15 0 To 3 Tiar Nails @ 1½d 0 0 4½ To pr Clamps pr Wheels 0 2 6 July 5 To 2 gallons oats 0 1 3 Decmb 7 To a key pr lock 2/6 mendg lock 1/3 0 3 9 .... 1774 Jany 18 To a Nutt for Chair 0 0 7½ Augt 22 To 8 Dog Nails 8d Cleang a Gun 2/6 0 3 2 1775 May 17 To a Key for a lock 0 2 6 Work done for the Capitol By James Anderson 1773 May 24 To Cleaning a Stove 1 0 0 July 26 To 4 Bars prs Statue 2 4 5 Octr 3 To 3 Bars prl Doors @ 2/6 0 7 6 To 4 Do @ 5/ . 20 mendg a hinge 2/6 1 2 6 4 To Eight hooks @ 7½ 0 5 0 15 To 2 Keys prs locks @ 3/9 0 7 6 To a Box prs do 0 1 6 1773 Country Dr Apr 25 To half a Year Salary as Armourer to the Magazine £10 1760 Collo Custis Estate to Thos Pate Dr. Feb. 11 To lenthening a Chain and mending a Bed pin for £0 3 0 Cart To altering a Sett of Clamps Do 0 2 6 19 To Pointing a Plough 0 2 6 22 To Making a Screw key for the mill 0 2 6 23 To Mending 2 Keys for Locks 0 2 6 27 To Making 2 Bed pins and 2 Linch pins for Cart 0 6 3 To making Cleavey and Pin Do 0 3 9 To making Iron work for a Ox yoke 0 5 0 March 5 To Making a Ox Chain 0 10 6 To making Iron Work for a Ox Yoke 0 3 9 11 To Altering 3 Mill Hoops 0 3 9 April 4 To mending a Lock and Key 0 2 0 26 To Altring a Mill Spindle 0 5 0 May 1 To Pointing a fluke hoe 0 2 6 2 To Making 2 Wedges for the Mill 0 2 6 7 To Mending a Sane 0 1 3 30 To Pointing a fluke hoe 0 2 6 June 3 To Dressing 3 mill Peaks and Lengthening a crane 0 5 0 30 To Pointing a fluke hoe 0 2 6 July 5 To Making a Hoope for Mill 10 pounds 0 7 8 To making 2 Wedges Do 0 2 6 11 To mending a Broad Ax 0 1 3 24 To mending a Key for a Lock 0 0 7½ Novm 17 To making a box for a whip saw 0 3 9 1761 Feb. 3 To making 2 peed pins for Small Cart 0 2 6 9 To Mending a Lock 0 1 3